US President Bill Clinton spoke this weekend with Yemeni leader Ali Abdullah Saleh to press for cooperation in the probe into the terrorist attack on

US President Bill Clinton spoke this weekend with Yemeni leader Ali Abdullah Saleh to press for cooperation in the probe into the terrorist attack on a US destroyer there, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said Monday.

Albright, speaking on ABC television's "Good Morning America" program said Clinton had been following up on a letter she and FBI director Louis Freeh had sent to Saleh last week urging him to give full cooperation into the attack on the USS Cole that killed 17 US sailors.

"Director Freeh and I wrote a letter to President Saleh saying that they had to cooperate more and President Clinton spoke to President Saleh over the weekend and we think it's very important for them to be as cooperative as possible in trying to resolve this great tragedy," Albright said.

Albright declined to directly implicate suspected terrorism mastermind Osama bin Laden in the October 12 attack saying the evidence thus far obtained was not conclusive enough yet to point in any one direction.

"I think that we have to figure out whether this leads to Osama bin Laden or not, I'm not prepared to make that point," she said when asked about reports that US investigators had evidence linking the exiled Saudi militant to the attack.

"But clearly," she added, "terrorism that is directed by him is a threat to the United States and to all our peoples" -- WASHINGTON (AFP)